Cereals, snack crackers, and other similar foods are typically packaged in paperboard cartons. Typical paperboard cartons do not alone protect products. As a result, the food product is commonly packaged within an inner sealed bag or liner that is placed inside the paperboard carton. To open the inner bag, the consumer must first open the box top flaps, then open the inner bag. Once this inner bag is opened, the integrity of the seal of the inner bag is lost. To reclose the bag, consumers resort to rolling the top of the bag or placing a clip or tape on the top of the bag. Carton flaps can be brought together to close the carton top, and secured using a tongue and slot connection. These options do not restore the integrity of the seal.
The typical carton and bag combination adds to the complexity in manufacturing and can increase the number of materials and steps needed to create the bag and carton combination. Furthermore, the bag forming and filling speed is often much slower than the carton forming speed, and thus may limit the speed of the total process. For example, the cartons may be formed at 250 cartons per minute, while the bags are only formed and filled at 50 bags per minute.
A plastic carton, manufactured by Paper Machinery Corporation, consists of a carton having a reclosable lid. The food product is packaged directly in the carton, without first being placed in a bag or liner. The carton is made up of two carton blanks, one blank for assembly of the carton sides and another blank for assembly of the carton bottom. However, the assembly of the bottom of the carton to the rest of the carton during manufacturing can add to the cost and complexity of manufacturing.